One-time Aggie DE Michael Bennett has made name in NFL

COLLEGE STATION — Defensive end Michael Bennett said little publicly during his four seasons at Texas A&M, but made his one-liners count when he did. Once asked how the Aggies were preparing to face the possibility of two Miami quarterbacks, a monotone Bennett responded, “I'm preparing to see the third one.”

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Sometimes Michael, a Seattle Seahawk who's now preparing to take on Denver's Peyton Manning in Sunday's Super Bowl, had little choice but to keep quiet. His younger Aggie brother, Martellus, typically soaked up all of the oxygen surrounding them.

“Michael was a quiet kid — a really quiet kid,” recalled Tom Gerber, the brothers' coach at Alief Taylor High School. “Martellus was more outgoing.”

And a higher-rated recruit to boot. A decade ago as a senior at Taylor, Michael owned few scholarship offers, and finally opted for Louisiana Tech. He spent part of the summer of 2004 in Louisiana in preparation for the Bulldogs' upcoming season, but failed to get past the NCAA clearinghouse and finally returned home to Alief.

It's not often such a move pays massive dividends, but this one did. Michael grew a couple of inches, and in the meantime, Martellus blossomed into one of the nation's top tight end prospects for 2005.

“Michael was a good high school player, but he kind of flew under the radar,” recalled Gerber, now the Alief district's athletic director. “He was a late bloomer. He was around 6-foot-2 and 220 pounds his senior year, but when he came back from Louisiana, he'd grown a couple of inches and gained another 20 pounds.”

Suddenly — and funny how this works — Michael became a hot commodity among the likes of Arizona, Missouri and A&M, and most recruiting observers simply figured programs were angling to ink Michael with the ultimate desire of netting Martellus.

“You know how the recruiting game is — and that was a smart move on A&M's part,” Gerber said Thursday with a chuckle, “if that's what they were thinking.”

It was, and Michael's A&M career from 2005-08 occasionally was rocky, as he even missed the Alamo Bowl in December 2007 after he was declared academically ineligible following his junior regular season under then-coach Dennis Franchione.

It seemed a given Michael (6-foot-4, 274 pounds) would join his brother in declaring early for the 2008 NFL draft — keep in mind the duo were part of the same class since Michael started college a year late — but against the academic odds he chose to return for his senior season under new head coach Mike Sherman.

“If I've been on anybody's back since I've been here, it's been Michael Bennett's,” Sherman said in 2008. “I'm encouraged that he's responded in a positive way.”

Michael, 28, has since, too, in collecting 17½ sacks in the past two seasons, including nine last year with Tampa Bay, despite being undrafted out of A&M in 2009 (where he only registered two sacks as a senior despite a team-high dozen tackles for loss). While Martellus, who sang his less-heralded brother's praise all week, has yet to play in a Super Bowl with Dallas, the Giants or his current team Chicago, Michael figures to play a prominent role in football's grandest game Sunday.

“It's just like being in the Willy Wonka chocolate factory right now,” Michael told reporters in New York for the Super Bowl. “All I see is cameras, lights and chocolate.”

And a decade ago, all Gerber saw was a diligent defensive end with a talented, talkative younger brother.

“Martellus was the one everybody in the country knew about,” Gerber said. “Michael was a late developer. But he was a good, hard worker, and now it seems like each year he continues to grow and get better. And that's a real credit to him.”